I told you motor sailing can be fun

As we left Brna this morning, I was expecting we’d be motoring all the way to our destination Vela Luka as the winds were light again. But after about 30 minutes I noticed the wind was coming more from behind us. So we tried out the sails and although there wasn’t enough to sail we were able to motor sail effectively. Maintaining the same boat speed of around 6 knots we ran the engine at 1,500 instead of the usual 1,900 rpm – so we saved fuel, if that wasn’t obvious.

We were on broad reach and I didn’t want to turn any closer our desired course for fear of gybing. After a fair time with the head sail backing occasionally I rigged a gybe preventer. The reason I hadn’t earlier was lack of a suitable line and also no obvious attachment point on the boom. So I bent the short line I made the charter guy give us together with one of his shockingly bad warps. It wasn’t long enough to reach back to the cockpit so we tied it at the bow cleat (conditions pretty light). This allowed us to set up on a dead run with the sails gull winged, adding at least a knot. Far more efficient.

Helen was on the helm as we turned past Krnji Rat we came on to a beam reach (removing the preventer) and engines off hit 9.7 knots – a holiday record.

Vela Luka had plenty of spare moorings, one of which we tied up to almost like pros. There were stern to moorings at the quay wall further around but it was right next to the fuel berth (stink) and it was much cheaper (only £15, astounding). All in all, an excellent day.